Sustainability Leadership: What is it?

Sustainability leadership is a position claimed by many companies in our industry but it is seldom clearly defined.  So what does sustainability leadership really mean?  How can we tell who the sustainability leaders truly are and who are those just claiming it without any real substance or merit?

According to the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (Visser, 2011) sustainability leadership is defined as those “who are compelled to make a difference by deepening their awareness of themselves in relation to the world around them.  In doing so, they adopt new ways of seeing, thinking and interacting that result in innovative, sustainable solutions.”   This definition can apply to individual leaders within a company or a company itself leading their industry, and it has several key elements that are worth unpacking and considering:

• “Awareness of themselves in relation to the world around them” – sustainability leaders have taken a holistic, long-term view of the social and environmental impacts that result from their company and their products.  And they have accepted a share of responsibility for those impacts.
• “Compelled to make a difference” – sustainability leadership at its core is about making significant and meaningful change.  Leaders measure their environmental and social impacts, they set ambitious goals to reduce them over the short and long term, and they share those goals and their progress publicly.  And they are actively encouraging and influencing others to follow and make those changes as well.
• “Adopt new ways of seeing, thinking and interacting” – Sustainability leaders are not doing business as usual, they are making changes to reduce their environmental and social impacts.  This requires new ways of thinking, new ways of doing business, and new ways of communicating with their customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
• “That result in innovative, sustainable solutions” – leaders are intentionally and strategically launching new sustainability driven products or services that make meaningful differences.  These innovations are not incremental but are necessarily disruptive to the status quo, they are changing paradigms and challenging the way it’s always been done.  Leaders can quantifiably demonstrate the environmental benefits of their innovations and how they connect to their company’s ambitious sustainability strategies and goals. 

So when someone claims to be a sustainability leader it’s important to look beyond the marketing hype and ask some substantial questions:

1. Do they know and talk about their environmental and social impacts? Do they have clear, ambitious sustainability strategies and goals?  Are they measuring and communicating progress against those goals?
2. Are they launching disruptive, innovative products or services driven by sustainability or are they making small, incremental changes and conducting business as usual?  
3. Are they actively engaging with and influencing their suppliers, their customers, end users, and other stakeholders in the market by speaking at conferences, engaging with NGOs or advocacy groups, supporting sustainability research at universities or otherwise sharing their knowledge and expertise with the public?
4. Have they received any external recognition, awards, certifications, or other 3^rd party validations recognizing them sustainability leaders?
5. Do they have dedicated, competent sustainability focused resources in the company responsible for these changes?  Can they help their customers, suppliers, and business partners navigate the complexities and nuances of sustainability as it affects everyone’s business?

Reference:

Visser, Wayne, “Sustainability Leadership:  Linking Theory and Practice,” Cambridge University, 2011

https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/sustainability-leadership-linking-theory-and.pdf